Trail WhippAss never was really supposed to be a "club" per say. When Kat & Myself founded it we decided there would be no dues - and no real rules to join except that you had to love exploring trails. We founded a group based on redefining success and failure from paces, or club points, or any of the stigmas that came along with the competitive nature of road racing.

At the time we didn't know what we were starting but we knew the ideals that we wanted to run by. A place where everybody was celebrated and accomplishment was recognized not only by speed or distance or finishing place but by heart, grit, and a profound love for the trails. In shorthand #RunCareless #RunFree

We also had no clue what we were doing. I think we had a board meeting once - I think we just talked about running and then went and ate ramen. Another time we had a conference call - and once we even had a google hangout where we all tried on digital hats and moustaches... Yeah, we were never meant to be very serious.

Things have changed over the past year. After finishing my first 100 mile race i've struggled with injury and struggled to accept being on the sideline. Through this time i haven't been the leader that I one was - and Trail WhippAss has become more a collective of like minded runners - a place to share stories from the trail, make plans for races, and communicate with like wise runners rather than act like a real club.

And the truth is - maybe thats what TrailWhippAss always was meant to be.

So where does that leave things today:

Kat has stepped down from being Vice President

I'm stepping down from being President

My final act as President is to disband the notion of Officers.

The website shall remain the Facebook page shall remain - swag will continue to be available and I will proudly race with my TWA swag going forward.

If anybody wants to take any leadership and initiative to get a new design of swag printed up, host a boozy get together, host a run, need a pacer....etc they should feel free to take initiative.

Basically - lets all keep the Trail WhippAss spirit alive

But lets make things simple again - lets not overcomplicate things. Lets just be a collective of bad ass fuckers that want to explore the wilds - meet up with each other - and have a fantastic time.

I'm not sure what this means - if anything.

I love you all, I consider each and every one of you a dear friend and I can't wait to see all of you out on the trails repping my TWA swag.

Sincerely,

Papa Fucking WhippAss

PS: Maybe this is not me taking the high road but when this club was founded Kat & I went through a lot of crap - and the more i've thought about it that is part of why I want to stop calling this a "club" and instead just call it a collective.Nobody should take themselves so seriously that they forget why we do this.To have fun - to explore - to run- to feel free.In the beginning we were forced to take things too seriously - maybe that doomed us from the start!
Some of you know what I mean, some of you don't, but in order to protect the notion of just having fun, running, and giving back to the environment that we love so much (FYI: in the past 3 years Trail WhippAss has given over $7,000 to local trail & conservationefforts) we had to put up with some harassment from another club, and I feel the need to share - as this is part of the reason why I want to make sure that nobody in this group ever takes themselves so seriously when it comes to doing what we love to do #RunCareless #RunFree: